‘Lavish salaries, large directors loans’ at liquidated Dolphin International Group

"Lavish salaries, large directors loans" and the purchase of a Range Rover are part of the pattern of spending discovered at the Cork office of Dolphin International Group in the months before it was placed in liquidation, the Sunday Independent reports.

Two directors were paid monthly wages of €70,000 just four months before the company went bust while a €183,000 Range Rover was bought for a director, the paper says. Dolphin Trust is part of a German property scheme that has collapsed leaving investors short.

The Sunday Times reports that the pensions watchdog has opened an investigation into “how €66 million of retirement savings has been put at risk because of the collapse of Dolphin Trust”. The paper says the investigation involved an Irish-based distributor of Dolphin’s unregulated investment products.

Legal row

About 29 Irish investors are in a legal battle in China after their units in the hotel in which they had invested were transferred to a Chinese company, the Sunday Independent reports. The cohort are from a group of 300 that financed the building. The 29 allege that the property transfer was conducted using forged documents and have vowed to continue a legal fight despite losing a Shanghai High Court bid.

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Davy scandal

Several large corporate clients of embattled stockbrokers Davy are understood to be reviewing their relationship with the firm, according to the Sunday Independent. The paper reports that “at least two” large PLCs have requested a review after Davy contacted its corporate clients in the wake of the bond scandal that has engulfed the firm.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Business Post reports that Pearse Doherty, the Sinn Féin finance spokesman, is calling for interim Davy chief executive Bernard O'Byrne to "answer questions over the firm's interactions with the regulator" when it challenged the investigation into alleged double dealing.

Hotel numbers

Hazel Chu, the Green Party's Lord Mayor of Dublin, wants caps introduced on the number of hotels being built in the city, according to a report in the Post. Chu told a recent public consultation that she recognises a need for more hotels to serve Dublin's tourism sector and support employment opportunities, but "parts of our city now suffer from an over-concentration of hotel developments".

Autism support

The Sunday Times reports that Avail Support, a Monaghan based producer of technology for people with autism and other health conditions, has been bought by American company, CentralReach. Its investment will be used to further expand the company which was set up by businesswoman Lisa Marie Clinton in 2017.